{"id":1908,"date":"2025-09-28T23:42:47","date_gmt":"2025-09-28T23:42:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/?p=1908"},"modified":"2025-09-28T23:42:47","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T23:42:47","slug":"sen-john-thune-digs-in-on-gop-funding-bill-accusing-democrats-of-holding-government-hostage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/?p=1908","title":{"rendered":"Sen. John Thune digs in on GOP funding bill, accusing Democrats of holding government &#8216;hostage&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON \u2014 A defiant Senate Majority Leader John Thune vowed that Republicans will hold firm on their\u00a0seven-week funding bill, insisting that the only way to prevent a government shutdown this week is for Democrats to support it.<\/p>\n<p>In an interview that aired Sunday on NBC\u2019s \u201cMeet the Press,\u201d Thune, R-S.D., said it\u2019s \u201ctotally up to the Democrats\u201d whether a shutdown will be avoided. He vowed that there won\u2019t be any negotiations on a stopgap bill, likening Democrats to hostage-takers who are \u201chijacking\u201d the process to pursue ideological demands.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Democrats are &#039;attempting to hold government funding HOSTAGE&#039; says Rep. John Thune (R-S.D.)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/V16WRJVkQCQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe need eight Democrats to pass it through the Senate,\u201d Thune told &#8220;Meet the Press&#8221; moderator Kristen Welker, adding: \u201cWhat the Democrats have done here is take the federal government as a hostage \u2014 and for that matter, by extension, the American people \u2014 to try and get a whole laundry list of things that they want that special interest groups on the far left are pushing them to accomplish.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said Republicans won\u2019t compromise on the short-term bill, calling it a mechanism to keep pursuing a long-term deal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCompromise on what? This is a simple seven-week funding resolution to allow us to do a normal appropriations process,\u201d Thune said. \u201cThey\u2019re trying to hijack it and load up all this liberal, special interest stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The remarks raise the stakes in the standoff as the clock ticks to a government shutdown at the end of Tuesday, when federal funding is set to expire. Funding the government, even on a short-term basis, requires 60 votes in the Senate, where Republicans control 53 seats. Democrats say they want to use the deadline as an opportunity to address rising health care costs.<\/p>\n<p>The top four Republican and Democratic lawmakers in Congress\u00a0are set to meet with Trump\u00a0at the White House on Monday as the shutdown looms, according to one White House and four congressional officials.<\/p>\n<p>The move, first reported by Punchbowl, comes days after Trump canceled a scheduled meeting with the House and Senate Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, both D-N.Y. Jeffries and Schumer are expected to attend Monday&#8217;s meeting with Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement following the &#8220;Meet the Press&#8221; interview, Thune told NBC News that &#8220;rank-and-file Democrats are getting nervous, and Sen. Schumer is too. The far left has painted them into an unsustainable corner, and they know it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Hopefully Sen. Schumer sees the light and listens to the same voice that walked him and his colleagues away from the edge of a shutdown in March,&#8221; he said. &#8220;If a White House meeting helps him get there, I welcome the opportunity.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>One demand that Democrats have made is to extend Obamacare funds that expire at the end of this year, which would threaten double-digit premium increases across the country in 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Thune argued in the statement that &#8220;fundamentally, nothing has changed, though, and the choice remains the same&#8221; as the one facing lawmakers on the brink of the last looming shutdown.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Democrats can either vote for a clean, short-term, nonpartisan CR that prioritizes the American people, or they can choose a completely avoidable shutdown that prioritizes politics above all else,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Thune said he\u2019s open to discussing an extension of that money, but not as part of this government funding bill, and only if there are new limitations placed on who can access those tax credits.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat doesn\u2019t happen until the end of the year. We can have that conversation, but before we do, release the hostage, set the American people free, keep the government open,\u201d Thune said. \u201cIt\u2019s fraught with waste, fraud and abuse, so we are going to have to have reforms if we take action there. But I think there\u2019s potentially a path forward.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s no income limits. Now, you can make $600,000 a year and qualify for this,\u201d he said. \u201cSo it\u2019s a program in desperate need of reform. We acknowledge that there\u2019s gonna have to be \u2014 hopefully there\u2019ll be some steps taken that can address the concerns that Democrats have. But you can\u2019t do this by Tuesday.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the interview, Thune also addressed the Justice Department\u2019s move to indict former FBI Director James Comey after President Donald Trump demanded that Attorney General Pam Bondi legally target him and other perceived political foes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe courts are going to have to have to decide this. These are allegations. They\u2019re not unserious allegations,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are people in the past who have gone to jail for lying to Congress. So I think the I trust the judicial system and the justice system to figure this out. Obviously they\u2019re going to have the final say in it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Thune sidestepped when asked if the Justice Department is acting independently or whether it should follow Trump\u2019s wishes and pursue criminal charges against other political adversaries.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cObviously a speculative and hypothetical question. I don\u2019t know the answer,\u201d he said, while adding of Comey: \u201cLet the justice system work, and he\u2019ll have his day in court. And if he is in fact innocent, I\u2019m sure he\u2019ll be found that way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Thune was also asked about Trump\u2019s aggressive use of executive power and whether there\u2019s any line Trump could cross that would prompt him to speak out.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think I do that a good amount, actually,\u201d he replied.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve been through multiple administrations now, Democrat and Republican. They\u2019re always going to assert as much authority as they can,\u201d Thune added. \u201cThat\u2019s the nature of the executive branch. And yes, Congress, as a coequal, independent branch of the government, has our job to do, and one of the levers we have is the power of the purse, which is funding. We also have the power of oversight and having hearings, but there are a lot of these issues that are going to get resolved by the courts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This article was originally published on\u00a0NBCNews.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON \u2014 A defiant Senate Majority Leader John Thune vowed that Republicans will hold firm on their\u00a0seven-week funding<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1909,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,7,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-news","category-us"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1908"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1910,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1908\/revisions\/1910"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}